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Eastern Michigan University

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Date: Apr 21 2005
Major: Accounting (This Major's Salary over time)
A recent article in the Ann Arbor News described Eastern Michigan University as having a bad reputation. This may be the understatement of the century. Eastern Michigan University is one of the worst bureaucracies in higher education history -an achievement notable in the face of long tradition and heavy competition. As both an employee and alumni of Eastern Michigan University and The University of Michigan, I observed the events of these schools with a practiced eye for decades. The following describes why Eastern Michigan University has the reputation that it does. Here are the four biggest reasons why: 1.) Loathsome, Mean-Spirited Employees. 2.) Unscrupulous Monetary Practices. 3.) Incompetent Bureaucracy & Miles of Red Tape. 4.) Callous Professors & Poor Classroom Instruction. Meanness With a student population of 18,000, Eastern Michigan University is situated in the southeast part of Michigan in the city of Ypsilanti. Ypsilanti borders the city of Ann Arbor. Despite their close proximity, the two cities have little in common - other than having overpriced slums for housing. Ypsilanti, instead, has more in common with Detroit, a larger city about twenty miles east of Ypsilanti. A “Sow of a City,” business people in Ypsilanti have a tradition of corruption and dishonesty. Business is corrupt because Ypsilanti is part of the Washtenaw County Court system - a corrupt and unjust system that is vehemently pro-business. The court’s unabashed favoritism towards business influences how the private sector conducts themselves, in addition to how the public sector conducts themselves - which Eastern Michigan University is very much a part of. Here are some examples of meanness at Eastern Michigan University: 1.) Walking across campus, a student’s head was nearly smashed by a rack sticking out of an EMU groundskeeper’s cart as the driver motored past her on the sidewalk. The sidewalk was wide and she innocently assumed the driver would stay on his side. Only by ducking did she avoid a serious injury. EMU vehicles bulldoze people around so frequently that a cartoon in the Eastern Echo (student newspaper) depicted students scrambling out of their path. 2.) A custodian in Mark Jefferson makes a daily spectacle of himself by playing his radio loud, bossing students around, and flirting with women. 3.) A librarian refuses to allow students to use a stapler resting on the service counter. She yells at a student for using it and orders the student to give her name. 4.) An arrogant and masculine teaching assistant in the biology department treats students like dirt. She states that humans are a plague and she lambastes men and manhood whenever she can. 5.) A certain group of students don't take their trays to the tray return after eating in the cafeteria. This is a persistent and uninterrupted tradition that has gone on for more than twenty years. Events such as these are infectious at Eastern Michigan University. It is as though everyone wants others to experience grief. The whole fabric of humanity seems to unravel there. Indiscretions A. Monetary Eastern Michigan University is well known for its unfair monetary charges and groundless parking citations. They are miles ahead of other universities in these deliberate and underhanded forms of revenue enhancement. Here are two examples of how Eastern Michigan University steals money: 1.) When residents first move into family housing, they are ticketed for parking in front of their apartments - even though the lease states that parking is included in the rent. Residents have no choice but to purchase a permit or be ticketed. Receiving a refund for either the tickets or the permits is impossible. 2.) If residents move into family housing on the weekend, they cannot purchase a parking permit until the first business day because the parking department is closed. Their cars, however, accumulate several tickets, as many as five or six citations per car, before the weekend is over. No matter how much residents advocate on behalf of themselves, Eastern Michigan University holds them accountable for these citations. B. Parking Eastern Michigan University’s student employees write tickets twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, almost three hundred and sixty-five days a year. Enforcement is so selective, arbitrary, and standardless that even parking department employees are unsure of the rules. For commuters the situation is difficult because the number of permits sold outnumbers the spaces for cars to park. Every year long lines of cars form to get into lots. Finding parking is stressful and fights break out between students over parking spaces. For someone wrongly ticketed, EMU has no corrective action policy. People are directed to a woman in the parking department who calls herself the “Parking Department B****.” Imagine approaching the parking counter to dispute a ticket and seeing her menacing glare as you approach. No matter how unjust or unfair a ticket is - she or another steely-eyed employee will stymie any redress of grievances. C. Contemptible Treatment Contemptible treatment is Eastern Michigan University’s quasi-official policy for almost everything. It is two ends in a single continuum for which students have no option but to concede. Sometimes it can assume grotesque proportions, almost a pathology. It is not unusual to observe an irate student and an irate employee yelling at each other. In one situation, an administrator was fired for keeping a loaded gun in his desk. He claimed that threats were made on his life and he had a right to protect himself. Financial disputes such as these are common, and they often involve larger amounts than parking citations. Pursuing litigation, however, is fruitless because universities cannot be sued in Michigan without going through the Court of Claims, which is a lengthy and expensive court process. How it became this way is beyond the reckoning of anyone other than attorneys and Eastern Michigan University accountants. There are so many students in the EMU counseling center on account of these negative experiences that it warrants naming a special diagnosis. Students experience a cumulative effect which remains buried in their unconscious and affects their psyche. Many students internalize a self-guilt which manifests itself into poor self-esteem and depression. Difficult, Out-Of-Control Bureaucracy Employees are so unknowledgeable, apathetic, and ill prepared to help that someone can spend hours, days, weeks, and months trying to accomplish something that should only take minutes. Offices are frequently closed when they are supposed to be open. These situations are exacerbated by rude employees who minimize their workload by providing incorrect information and denying responsibility when things go wrong. Important: when an employee informs you of something - write down the employee’s name, the date and time, and everything important that was said. Here are three examples of bad bureaucracy at Eastern Michigan University: 1.) Signs at counters inform students they must speak to someone when submitting a form, which requires standing in a long line. Students reach the front of the line and find themselves sneered at and treated with contempt. In one situation, a student was unable to resolve his situation after a long wait. When he asked to speak to the supervisor, he was rudely informed to have a seat and wait. Twenty minutes later, campus police entered and escorted him out of the building. 2.) Many phone numbers require using a long automated voice message system. After pressing buttons for several minutes, one hears an automated “thank you: good-bye” recording before being automatically disconnected. This can be frustrating and expensive for long distance callers. 3.) The Snow Health Center is for student medical care and is commonly referred to as “The Snow Center.” They earned this moniker by consistently providing poor medical care and dehumanizing treatment. When my friend was rear-ended on campus, a callous doctor refused to provide lifting restrictions for her job. A glaring reason why service is poor is because employees are engaged in so much non-work related activity. Employees frequently have informal events together on campus. These events are fun for them, but are not beneficial for the people they are supposed to serve. In the recreation building, for example, a large group of employees have a long basketball game several days each week. In the cafeteria, management have a daily lunch together which often lasts hours. Employees are joined by all kinds of outsiders including family members and friends. The staff and student employees in the Olds-Robb Recreation Center are some of the cruelest employees on campus. They state that too many people use the Recreation Building and their goal is to drive away as many people as possible. Recreation Building employees bark out orders in ways that are hurtful and embarrassing to patrons. They don't know building rules and lie rather than admit they made a mistake, making patrons look like rule breakers. Their biggest shortcoming is their outright disregard for safety concerns. They can also be a part of rowdy and rule breaking behavior instead of preventing it. Here are some examples: A young boy inadvertently shoots baskets on a reserved basketball court and is yelled at by a student employee. The boy walks off the court in tears. An on-duty student employee is part of a Friday night melee. He plays pool with his friends, shouting at the top of his lungs, sword fighting with the pool sticks, and climbing on the pool tables. He prevents anyone except his group from using the pool tables. Basketball players often get into serious fights on the third floor. In one situation, a basketball player was beaten so bad that police were able to find him and his assailant by following separate trails of blood through the building, even though blood came from only one person. In January 2003, the EMU Echo reported an altercation on the basketball courts involving between 100 and 150 people. That same month, the drowning death of a seventeen-year old swimmer (name withheld) came as no surprise to anyone who uses the facility. Three life guards claimed the swimmer was underwater for less than a minute, but medical personnel said it was much longer. The Associate Director of the Recreation Department and several other EMU employees are being sued by the law offices of Geoffrey Figer. An administrator and several cafeteria managers are a curious site on campus. A sharply dressed group, they meander around campus each week led by an administrator who acts like royalty. The others appear to be his entourage. They fawn over him, dusting specks off his clothes, and running errands at his beck and call. Professors Eastern Michigan University has a handful of professors who are affable, professional, and establish relationships when students take the initiative. Meeting with professors outside class is beneficial for students and some professors are wonderful at doing this. Eastern Michigan University boosts a 20:1 student to faculty ratio on their web page. I made friends with several professors and had graduate school recommendations written by two. This is a redeeming factor that stands in contrast to the negative experiences that one will experience at this institution. In spite of this, most professors are hands-off and establish clear limits when students ask for assistance. If the role of a professor is to set standards of professional behavior, to exhibit positive personality characteristics instead of negative ones, to be prepared for class and to deliver a good lecture - then professors must be judged at worst as failing miserably and at best as inadequate dispensers of education as sheer commodity. Many professors are reticent and avoid eye contact with students. Many are rude and hostile to students who visit them in their office. It is striking how frequently professors are late for class. This occurs because chatting with colleagues is more important to them than being on time. Brazenly arriving late, professors spend minutes fumbling through their things before beginning their lecture. Ironically, the one time in which professors deliver a good lecture is before they have pass out professor evaluations. Professors also have a tendency towards striking or threatening to strike - which elicits a frenzied spirit of uninvolvement and apathy on their part before, during, and after negotiations. Professors engaging in unprofessional behavior is not uncommon in higher education. At Eastern Michigan University, however, professors have a propensity for engaging in the most unprofessional behavior imaginable. A professor in the math department, for example, imitates student’s facial expressions or repeats their statements in a jeering manner. A professor in the psychology department plays favorites with attractive female coeds, especially if they visit him in his office. He married one of his graduate assistants mere weeks after she obtained her degree in his program. The dormitory buildings are old, poorly managed, and in a state of neglect and disrepair. The plumbing in my bathroom was so bad that I showered each morning in a spray of mist. Dormitory furniture and carpeting is a shambles. The dorm room mattresses are so overused that sleeping on them produces back pain. The Towers ‘Hill, Hoyt, and Pittman’ have the biggest crime problems on campus. A mini-police station was located there to minimize crime, but rarely is an officer present. Families occupy most apartments on campus and every building is infested with cockroaches. Someone once predicted that the entire Brown-Munson Apartment Building would crawl away. Every month residents receive a letter ordering them to prepare their apartment for roach extermination by moving everything away from the walls and out of the cupboards and closets. This is a time consuming chore which residents are informed they must do or pay an exorbitant fine. If you can tolerate the cockroaches and poor management, the Pine Grove Apartments are a quaint and quiet retreat. B. Off-campus The living situation off-campus is a nightmare. Unlike some universities, Eastern Michigan University (and the nearby University of Michigan) do not have enough on-campus housing for their students. Many students live off-campus and fall victim to a horrible slumlord situation. This is caused by the Washtenaw County court system. The courts are antagonistic to renters and extremely pro-landlord. This may be the most serious shortcoming of this area. Off-campus housing are over-priced slums! Off-campus housing is an interesting mixture of students, people of lower economic status, and mentally ill. The houses around campus are split into individual units in which rooms are rented individually and students share common areas with non-students. When someone inquires about renting, landlords describe the property as “apartments” in “apartment buildings” - but when a renter visits the property they discover it’s a room in a house. Ypsilanti has a large number of mentally ill in need of housing. These individuals entered the community when Governor John Engler closed the Ypsilanti State Mental Hospital several years ago. Landlords readily rent to them because the money comes from the state. These living arrangements, however, cause all kinds of problems for other tenants. Many students move out when a mentally ill person causes problems. In spite of this, landlords hold students to their leases and then re-rent the units to others fleeing bad rent situations. Ultimately, the landlords benefit because re-renting their units produces double and sometimes triple rent payments for the same unit in the same year. Urban campuses have many shortcomings and EMU is no exception. The streets adjoining campus are noisy and filled with fast-moving traffic. The physical aspects are marred by a lack of brightness. Some campus buildings are old Ypsilanti school system buildings. The dreary scenery is made worse by poor upkeep and a lack of repair. The sidewalks and pavement are crumbling and weed grown. Some walls have graffiti. Trash receptacles overflow and trash litters the ground for weeks. Even the newer parts of campus have a distinct low-budget quality. Maintenance and upkeep are worst in the lecture halls and classrooms. The floors, walls, and ceilings are dirty and remain that way for months. Many of the large glass display cases are uncared for and feature the same display for years. The glass is unclean and the insides accumulate dust, dead bugs, and trash. The area surrounding the campus is also a dull offering. This includes unsightly fraternity houses, slummy apartment complexes, abandoned industry, and the grubby Ypsilanti business district. Ypsilanti is a congested area with bumpy roads, houses packed together, and several one-way streets that make navigation difficult. Individuals with mental illness roam the streets aimlessly and often find their way onto campus. It’s not unusual to see someone urinating. Parking tickets underneath the windshields of cars are a common site. Next to Eastern Michigan University stands a huge water tower that resembles a penis. There are several other phallic symbols on campus too, another unique phenomenon satirized by the Eastern Echo student paper. There is also a strange statue of a nude woman of African descent. A local fraternity adorns the statue each year with a dress. Social Life The nearby city of Ann Arbor gives students a place to go for social events - something missing from Ypsilanti. This, however, also brings leftist politics and activism to campus - something that contributes to the area’s negative atmosphere. It becomes wearisome being where people voice politics all the time. The Eastern Echo student paper covers feminist and race issues mostly. Being a teaching school, EMU has a disproportionately high number of female co-eds. Within the overall student population, females outnumber males by an almost 60:40 ratio. It’s been said that guys from the University of Michigan find reasons to visit Eastern Michigan University to meet girls. Being mostly a commuter school, EMU campus is often deserted late in the afternoon or on weekends. Geography Eastern Michigan University is a short distance from Washtenaw Community College, a good community college for which some students get transfer credits from. Eastern Michigan University is noted for the School of Business, which is located in downtown Ypsilanti, about a block away from the adult bookstores and strip clubs. The School of Business was situated in downtown Ypsilanti in a feeble attempt to revitalize the Ypsilanti business district. In spite of this, students from the School of Business have virtually nothing to do with the downtown businesses district, and the downtown business district has virtually nothing to do with the School of Business. Crime Ypsilanti has a high crime rate and Eastern Michigan University is no exception. Anything that is not nailed down gets stolen and anything that is nailed down gets stolen too. In the McKenny Student Union, for example, a large dollar bill changer was carried behind locked doors where it was dismantled and looted. A pool table was carried from the basement of a dorm and down the street to a nearby house. Several weeks later, undercover police (acting on a tip) posed as potential buyers and went to the house and made arrests. Looking out my window in Walton Hall dorm - I observed a bicyclist get robbed and beaten by a roving gang of youths. This kind of crime happens frequently on campus. Eastern Michigan University hosts various events on campus such as high school girl’s basketball tournaments and summer camps for delinquent minors. These events bring outsiders to campus who contribute to the negative atmosphere. The parents of these athletes act like they own the campus. They are rude to students and trash everything before they leave. Eastern Michigan University contracts with Washtenaw County Community Mental Health to provide services for delinquent youths. EMU student employees do a better job supervising these youths than the Community Mental Health employees who are supposed to. Despite this, Community Mental Health returns every year, bringing their unsupervised brats who vandalize and steal. A block from Eastern Michigan University is the former residence of serial killer John Collins. Starting in the late 1960’s, John Collins became the prime suspect in the murders of several Eastern Michigan University and University of Michigan female co-eds, in addition to several other women. John Collins was an education major at EMU and lived a block from campus at 619 Emmet Street, commonly referred to as the “Michigan Murder House.” His first victim lived a block away at 423 Washtenaw Avenue and his second victim lived a block in the other direction at 703 Emmet Street. Edward Keyes chronicles these events in his excellent book The Michigan Murders. The book describes how most of the murders would probably have been prevented had it not been for bungled police work. After the second murder, for example, witnesses informed police that John Collins was with the victim on campus shortly before she disappeared, but police dismissed the lead because John Collins was related to a sergeant in the police department who vouched for him. Despite its shortcomings, Eastern Michigan University is making improvements. With an air of triumph, the regents raised the standards of admission a few years ago. This produced a noticeable and needed improvement in the conduct and caliber of students. Other important needs are being met too, especially by new development - which is keeping the campus in a state of flux. A few years ago, for example, a student was badly injured after being hit by a high-speed driver who was cruising through campus for kicks. There were several other high-speed accidents too. As a result, a road that ran through campus was turned into a sidewalk. This reduced the number of outsiders on campus and made everything safer, quieter, and more pedestrian friendly. There are several new buildings on campus which include the Halle Library, the Rynearson Football Stadium, and the Oestrike Baseball Stadium. In my opinion, EMU’s shining star is their outdoor recreational lake, a nice addition to their recreational sports building. This however, is now becoming neglected. When it was first completed, the lake was a wonderful retreat not used enough by students, largely because of the northern climate. But now, the water is so full of silt and seaweed that swimming is nearly impossible. Children who go wading come out with leeches on their legs. If one wants a healthier swimming environment, the recreation building has two swimming pools - one of which is the largest indoor pool in Michigan. Although many at Eastern Michigan University hold their new development in the highest regards, others have argued that it is unnecessary. How important is a new football stadium and basketball stadium when money could be better spent elsewhere? Some students were unhappy when several good tennis courts and a good bowling alley were demolished to make room for these changes. One also has to wonder when the huge new clock on top of the Halle Library rarely ever tells the correct time. I recently saw a friend from EMU who immediately started telling me how bad the bureaucracy is there. I cannot tell you how many times others have shared with me their painful Eastern Michigan University experiences. When I worked in Toledo, a co-worker shared with me that her son was accepted to Eastern Michigan University on an athletic scholarship. She tearfully informed me how her son lost his life after being struck by a drunk driver on campus. My God…I thought, another Eastern Michigan University horror story. The experiences that one has at college produce memories that will last a lifetime. Getting an education at Eastern Michigan University will leave one with a long-lasting feeling of bitterness and pessimism. My recommendation is to attend college somewhere else and avoid the unpleasant experiences that being a student at Eastern Michigan University will produce.
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